Tuesday, May 22, 2007

South Hobart Bonfire Night

We dropped into the old stamping ground last night to attend the annual South Hobart bonfire night. We picked up Lana from next door, and walked up past the brewery to the paddock where they always have the bonfire. It's a nice thing to be a half an hour walk from the city, but only ten minutes walk from a very large paddock.

There was a slightly out-of-kilter irish band playing, hot dogs etc and a small range of glowsticks available. We bought some glowsticks and hotdogs and wandered around the paddock in the dark, eating and glowing, like everyone else.

The PA man tried desperately to give away door prizes. "Ticket number Green 124 - we are still waiting....Flair Boutique... full body massage... what's that Kevin?... don't miss out on a full range of hair... er... services..."

The bonfire was lit by the deputy lord mayor Eva Ruzicka, who is arguably the most powerful person in South Hobart. It was a pretty good one, and kept the crowd on its toes with the constantly changing wind direction sending embers scattering generally. The boys and Lana were having a good time, it was a mild night and very pleasant to just sit and look at a large fire.

A little later the fireworks began all of a sudden, away off up the hill. Elf got Marcus's earplugs in just in time but not Michael's. He was fascinated but also quite scared, wailing eloquently "I want to go away from this place". The display was very good, went on for a while, and afterwards Michael seemed to bear no ill effects. Marcus had enjoyed fireworks for the first time (he hated it a couple of years ago), and Lana enjoyed her first encounter with them.

We walked Lana home again and that was it for another year.

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